by D. N. Leo
He had feelings for Mya, strong feelings. Whether or not it was the big “L” word, he did see himself spending the rest of his life with her. Having taken the Sciphil position, and being part Eudaizian, he had taken on his shoulders the lives of millions of citizens whom he had sworn to serve and protect. The simple matter of wanting to be with Mya now had huge consequences.
Mya and Kirra approached, looking distressed. He knew both of them thought they were responsible for what had happened to Leon.
“I didn’t know you smoked,” Mya said.
“You know now.” He smiled at her.
“What did you tell the doctor?” Mya asked.
“I told him Leon is sorting out his legal status. It’s in progress, so right now he’s an illegal immigrant and not on the government database. I hoped the doctor would have some compassion.”
“Looks like he did, but it isn’t enough to save him, is it?” Kirra said, tears welling up again in her eyes.
“Crying your eyes out doesn’t help, Kirra,” Zach said.
“Do you know something that does?” Mya asked.
Zach nodded. He stood up and squashed out his cigarette. “Yes, I have a solution. But first, we need to bet.”
“Betting? Like gambling?” Kirra asked.
Zach nodded. “Essentially.” He saw Mya narrow her eyes at him. He knew she was familiar with the procedure. For centuries, she had been handling people’s destinies the same way—gambling, betting, negotiating with death. She said nothing.
“My solution will save him but will change him forever. And it can only be done before he dies,” Zach said.
“Like turning him into a vampire?” Kirra’s eyes widened.
“I’m not a vampire if that’s what you’re thinking, Kirra. But I’m glad you’re open to unexplained phenomena. That makes laying this information out a lot easier.” He looked at Mya.
She shook her head. “Leon’s a soldier. He’s strong. He can survive this.”
“That’s what I’m saying. We’re gambling with his life. Are you sure, Mya? If he dies, there’s nothing I can do. I can’t bring him back from death. And neither can you,” Zach said.
She walked back and forth and then whirled around. She looked at him and then Kirra, letting her arms flop down at her sides. “No, I’m not sure.” She waved her arms in the air. “Why did I even think about my Goddess? Of course she wouldn’t save Leon. She almost ripped his throat out before.”
“Goddess?” Kirra asked incredulously.
“Yes, I’m a deity,” Mya said and looked straight into Kirra’s eyes, confirming her seriousness.
“Oh…all right. Sure. I’ve read a lot of fantasy novels. If Leon’s your friend, Mya, then he must be a deity, too. I get it. Zach isn’t a vampire or alien or anything…” Her voice trailed off when she saw the look on Mya’s face. “Is he? Zach is an alien?”
Mya glanced at him.
Zach spoke as slowly as possible. “It’s a lot more complicated than that, Kirra. But simply speaking, I don’t live on Earth anymore. And the place I live now has a solution for Leon. It has a lot to do with science and metaphysics, and trust me, I’m the last person you want an explanation from.”
Kirra nodded. “Okay. That’s a lot to absorb in one day. But I can take it. As long as there’s a solution for Leon.”
Zach looked at Mya. She sighed and nodded.
“All right. Do you know how to handle medical equipment?” Zach asked.
Mya shook her head.
“Just enough for first aid. Like needles, securing simple wounds, and connecting drips,” Kirra said.
“That’s good enough. I don’t have enough time to explain to you about the procedure. But in a nutshell, I’m going to wake him for a moment, and Leon has to consent to what he’s receiving from me. It’s hardly a consent in his condition, but I’ll deal with the consequences of that later. Mya, you have to convince him to say yes. Can you do that?”
Mya nodded.
“I need your help with the medical equipment, Kirra. There’s a substance I need to inject into his body via the IV after he agrees to it. Can you do that?”
Kirra nodded.
“All right. Then let’s go,” Zach said.
“Are you sure about this, Zach?” Mya asked.
“I’ve seen it done before with my own eyes. So yes, I’m sure.” He turned and strode into the long hospital corridor.
The energy he was carrying in his body was one of Eudaiz’s top secrets—it was part of the making of a Sciphil’s power. If Leon betrayed him or the Eudaizian universe, Zach would have to kill Leon before he could leak any of Eudaiz’s secrets, or worse, give a sample of the substance to any of Eudaiz’s adversaries.
Thinking about their endless list of enemies, Zach shuddered.
Chapter 34
Zach and Mya hid in a storage room near the critical care unit. The room was so small and cluttered with equipment that Zach’s and Mya’s bodies rubbed up against each other.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t come back to the Daimon Gate for you?”
“The thought crossed my mind. But you know why I left. Ishtar threatened to kill all the subjects I had saved. That would be thousands of people.”
“Hmmm.”
“I know my numbers aren’t stacking up to yours, but—”
“It’s not the numbers, Mya.”
“So what’s causing that look on your face?”
“What look? I don’t pout.”
Mya chuckled. “I’d rather you pouted.”
Zach sighed. “I just have a lot on my mind. That’s all. What’s taking Kirra so long?”
“Come on, Zach. I don’t know how to disconnect the security monitors. And you can’t do it, either. So stop whining.”
“I’m not. I just don’t like the smell of meds and cleaning products.”
The door of the room slid open, and Kirra appeared. “It’s done. Let’s go before they turn the monitors back on,” she whispered.
Zach and Mya rushed out of the room.
The light in the corridor was still on. Apparently, Kirra had disconnected only the security monitors and nothing else.
“Very impressive. How did you do that?” Zach asked while they raced toward Leon’s room.
Kirra shrugged. “It’s not rocket science. I just unplugged the monitors.”
“So what will stop them from plugging them back in?” Mya asked in astonishment.
“Well, I didn’t know which one led to Leon’s room, so I cut all of the cords. With a very sharp pair of gardening scissors.” She grinned wickedly. “It’ll take them a while to replace the security system.”
Mya smiled. They entered Leon’s room, and their chatter died.
They had been right the whole time regarding the decision to make Leon take Zach’s offer. Leon didn’t look as if he would make it. His lifeless body lay motionless. The monitor barely registered his pulse. His skin had turned ashen.
Kirra bit back a tear. “All right, what do you need me to do now, Zach?” she asked.
“This is worse than I expected,” Zach said. “I’ve seen Ciaran do this for his brother before. The thing is, Ciaran used his blood to pump the substance that he injected into his brother’s body. His brother recovered instantly. The problem we have here is that we don’t have the blood to transmit the energy efficiently throughout his body. We’ll still do it, but it will diffuse naturally. Don’t expect him to be jumping up and down right away. All I can guarantee is that the procedure works. He’ll live.”
“We have to be out of here ASAP,” Mya said.
Zach nodded. “As soon as we finish, we have to smuggle him out of here.”
Kirra nodded with determination. “I’m on it. We can get him out of here promptly. Now, tell me what to do, Zach.”
“Okay, get the drips ready.”
While Kirra rushed around preparing the needle, Zach concentrated. He sent a sound frequency into Leon to wake him. It didn’t work. He tried
again. And again. Leon stirred and winced. His eyes fluttered.
“Mya!” Zach called out.
Mya sat down next to the bed and angled her face to ensure she was within Leon’s vision as soon as he opened his eyes.
Zach sent another sound wave.
Leon winced again and opened his eyes.
“What’s his last name?” Zach asked quickly.
“Baal,” Mya responded.
Zach switched on the translator in his wrist unit and said, “Leon Baal, I now name you the successor of Sciphil Two of Eudaiz. Do you accept?”
The machine translated what Zach said to Leon. He frowned, and then his eyes almost rolled back. He was going to pass out again.
Mya spoke in Babylonian, and the computer translated back in English. “Leon, you’re injured. The only chance you have to survive is to accept what Zach is offering. I understand you have your loyalty to the court. But this is your life. And Ishtar didn’t save you when you needed her. Take it. Please.”
Leon frowned.
Zach raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
“Leon, please say yes. You took on this mission because of me. If anything happens to you, I’ll never forgive myself. You probably don’t know what’s going on. So if you trust me, just say yes.”
“Leon Baal, I now name you the successor of Sciphil Two. Do you accept?” Zach repeated.
Leon glanced at Mya quickly. Zach couldn’t see Mya’s face, but he saw a tear fall on Leon’s face. Leon turned toward him and said, “Yes.” Then he passed out again.
“Kirra,” Zach called. “Come here, please.” He peeled his shirt off. “On my back, on the right-hand side, about six inches from my shoulder, can you see a faint bruise mark?”
“Yes,” said Kirra.
“Stick the needle in there and draw out some substance.”
“Some? How much?”
“Just fill up the needle cylinder.” It might be a little too much, Zach thought, but he didn’t have time to check with Eudaiz for the precise dosage. He felt the needle puncture his shoulder, and his most precious energy was drawn out.
For a second, he felt dizzy. “That’s enough,” he said.
When he turned around, he could see the semitransparent silver liquid nearly filling the cylinder of the syringe. He realized how crucial that energy was, and he now remembered that Sciphil Nine gave Ciaran’s brother only a few drops.
Zach pointed at the IV drip. Kirra nodded and darted to the tube. She injected the substance into the tube to transport it throughout Leon’s body.
Very shortly, Leon’s pulse registered stronger on the monitor. Zach shook his head, trying to stay alert as his vision wavered. “We need to go now,” he said.
Mya pushed a wheelchair in. She and Kirra loaded Leon onto the chair. Zach tried to help, but every movement he made was like trying to move mountains.
“Are you okay, Zach?”
He saw Mya’s face hovering in front of him. Her image wavered as if it was floating in water.
“Zach!”
“Huh?”
“Are you okay?” Mya asked again.
“I might have let too much of my eudqi be taken out…”
He felt her arm slide around his waist.
“No, I can manage. Let’s go.”
Mya continued to hang on to him, and he was inwardly thankful. He had a feeling he would be falling and planting his face on the floor if she were not helping him. Kirra pushed the wheelchair. They raced along the corridor. At the far end, the shadows of security officers moved toward them.
“The other way,” Mya said and steered Zach in another direction.
They stormed out to the parking lot and loaded Leon into the backseat of the SUV. Kirra quickly folded the wheelchair and threw it in the trunk.
“You’re in the backseat, Zach.” she said.
“Excuse me?” Zach protested.
Kirra said nothing but just stuffed him into the backseat of the car.
“I’ll drive,” Kirra said as she strode toward the driver’s side. Mya climbed reluctantly into the passenger seat in the front. Their SUV charged out the gate of the hospital at the same time that security rushed out the front door.
Kirra fishtailed into the dirt lot of the campsite. Zach staggered out and went over to the other side to help get Leon into the wheelchair, but Mya and Kirra had beaten him to it.
They had only walked a few feet when they heard low growls from the nearby trees.
“About damn time,” Kirra grunted between her teeth and pulled out the rifle in her car, loading it quickly.
“You have to take Leon to the room, Zach. Let’s us take care of these animals,” Mya said.
Zach didn’t like the idea of women protecting him, but he wasn’t stupid and irrational. There was no room for egotistic masculinity now. He was weak. Without Eudaizian technology, he’d have to recharge his eudqi naturally. It took time, and he needed to rest.
He raced toward the room with the wheelchair, pushed Leon inside, and slammed the door behind him.
He was exhausted. He knew he should jam the door with something and secure the window. But before he could do anything, he heard a low growl from a dark corner of the room.
Chapter 35
Mya took the combat knife Kirra gave her and followed Kirra. For a brief moment, she wondered if Kirra had been put in her file as a case to save or on the list of people destined to die. She shook the thought from her mind. She was on a different mission now, and she was sure her balance didn’t count in this case. And that was for the best.
Two men in their late forties walked toward the office from the corner of the yard. They stopped when they spotted Kirra and Mya at the edge of the bush.
“Kirra, what are you doing over there? Is your friend okay? I heard about the accident,” one of them said.
Kirra smiled. “He’s fine. We just want to make sure everything is good here.”
“It’s weird that the cats came out of the bush like that. I heard the office call for some professionals to search the area,” the other man said.
“What professionals?” Kirra asked.
The man shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it has to do with wildlife preservation or some expert in that regard.”
Kirra shrugged. “All right. I’ll let them know if there’s anything unusual tonight.”
The man chuckled. “Don’t stay too late, and don’t go into the woods.”
“All right. We’ll just search around the yard.” Kirra grinned.
The two men walked away.
Mya turned back to look at Kirra and saw that she had darted into the bush. Cursing, she rushed after her.
In the room, a leopard stepped out from the corner. Zach was one hundred percent sure this one wasn’t an ordinary leopard. It wasn’t even an ordinary shapeshifter—if he could consider shapeshifters to be ordinary creatures. Something about this creature—whatever it was—was magically different.
Zach knew he was in no shape to fight. He could use the gun he brought from Eudaiz—he was sure it could kill space creatures—but it hadn’t been tested on magical creatures. If he fired, and the gun didn’t work, then he and Leon would end up the leopard’s dinner.
At least, at the moment, the animal wasn’t attacking. It moved around the bed and approached Zach. It sniffed his hand. It was so close he could smell it—the earthy smell of a wild animal.
“We don’t mean you any harm,” he said and was sure it understood him. The animal looked at him with haunting green eyes. It licked his hand.
At the other corner of the room, Leon stirred in the wheelchair and started to wake.
Zach cursed silently but said nothing. He felt a tug on his hand. He looked down and saw the leopard was trying to yank his wrist unit off. He jerked his hand away.
It looked up at him and bared its teeth. He thought he saw a flash of an ancient woman’s face, but it just as quickly returned to the leopard’s face. Maybe he had hallucinated it.
&nb
sp; “Whatever you are, I can’t let you take my wrist unit.”
Zach shuddered, thinking about the consequences of that. The wrist unit not only carried his biological profile but also whatever it was that made him a Sciphil. He’d destroy it before he allowed it to drop into the wrong hands, even if he had to die. Zach stepped back.
A deep voice croaked out from the leopard’s mouth, saying, “Magic…the gate…give me…” and then it approached his right hand again. He got the impression that if he jerked away again, it would bite his hand off. So he reached his hand out. The animal sniffed it. Why does it want to get my wrist unit? he thought as he slid his left hand under his jacket where he kept his gun holstered.
As fast as he could manage, he pulled the gun and shot the animal. The laser beam hit its fur and absorbed into its skin.
No injury to the animal. Not even a scratch. Shit! he thought.
The animal bared its teeth, and Zach stepped back. It leaped at him. He pulled his dagger and stabbed its chest. Surprisingly, the dagger caused some damage, but the momentum and the weight of the animal pushed Zach to the floor.
It withdrew slightly and then charged at him again.
From behind the animal’s back, Leon leaped at it with a knife in his hand. He stabbed it in the back, pulling the knife down and almost slicing its back in half. The animal howled in pain and whirled around, throwing Leon to the floor.
Zach jumped up and took his turn, stabbing at the animal’s back as it charged at Leon.
The animal had been weakened. In addition, the room was too small for it for gain any more momentum. So when Zach stabbed it, it fell short of landing on Leon. It bit his left leg, and Leon tried to yank it away.
Zach pulled his dagger out and stabbed again.
The leopard swung around quickly. Zach ducked, but it was still able to sink its teeth into his left shoulder. It hurt, but it was a lot better than the cat getting his right shoulder, as that would be too close to his eudqi point. Zach fell and saw stars. On the way down, he stabbed one more time at the leopard’s chest.
It roared. He knew it was badly hurt.
